


Love Is Something You Can't Shake

by brokenhighways



Category: CW Network RPF, Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Federal Agents, Inspired by a Movie, M/M, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 03:27:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenhighways/pseuds/brokenhighways
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Jared and Jensen are two FBI Agents (and partners) with a romantic past. After a case ends abruptly, they’re suspended and thrown onto an off-the-books case that requires them to seduce a woman called Sandy McCoy for information. A falling out leads to them turning the case into a petty competition that threatens to ruin their friendship and any chance they had of rekindling their relationship - for good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Is Something You Can't Shake

**Author's Note:**

> written for **spn_cinema** , for the movie _This Means War_

# Prologue

There was a loud crash as one of the wheels on the rapidly accelerating Mercedes-Benz in front of Jared dislodged itself and spun away. He swerved wildly to avoid it, cursing under his breath as the car behind him started to speed up. His annoyance quickly melted into apprehension as two shots were fired into his windscreen. Without slowing down he grabbed his regulation .38 from the glove compartment and shifted so that his left hand was controlling the wheel. He threw his arm out of his open window and fired back, cursing as another Mercedes emerged from behind his own vehicle. Through the standard earpiece lodged in his ear, he could hear his partner Jensen bitching about how the FBI didn't pay them enough to deal with crazy Mexicans. Jared smiled despite himself. All he had to do was make sure that Jensen didn't do anything rash. Usually, he did a good job at that but this car chase had gone on for too long. If Jared's patience was wearing thin, Jensen was probably at breaking point. Nothing good would come from this. As if on cue, a sudden outburst from Jensen had Jared worrying. Before he could remind Jensen that Rufus - their boss - had demanded a low body count, a small fist sized object came sailing over Jared's car and collided with the Mexicans' Mercedes. After bringing his own vehicle to an abrupt halt, Jared watched as the car exploded into a colossal, orange-red ball of fire. Debris began to scatter everywhere as putrid black smoke started to rise upwards towards the sky. The explosion should not have been that severe but they'd both watched as Julio Morales had loaded six cases of C-4 into his trunk.  
  
"Oops," Jensen said through the intercom. "Do you think we have time to stop off at a drive-thru? I could murder a cheeseburger right now." Jared rolled his eyes at the flippant comment, he knew better than most people that beneath Jensen’s cool exterior, there was a person who actually felt affection. Why Jensen thought that wasn’t necessary to use that in their line of work was a mystery to Jared. Maybe Jensen just liked to perpetuate the notion of the good cop/bad cop dynamic. Either way, it annoyed the hell out of Jared.  
  
Before he could come up with a response, Jared was distracted by the large pieces of debris that chose that particular moment to smash through his windscreen and instantly saw black.  
  
When he came to Jensen was hovering above him, with one of his hands gently stroking Jared's hair. The second that he realized that Jared was awake; he dropped his hand and coughed uncomfortably. Jared rolled his eyes and promptly regretted it when a wave of pain washed over him. As he sat up, he realized that he was in the back of an ambulance. He sighed as he swung his legs over the side of the stretcher and stood up. The guys in their division already thought he was the weakest link; he wasn't going to let anyone cart him away in an  _ambulance,_ for God's sake. He'd get someone to take a look at him when they got back to their headquarters.  
  
"Jared...." Jensen's voice trailed off and Jared shrugged and slowly made his way over to Jensen's car.  
  
"Try not to kill anyone on our way in."  
  
\--  
  
By the time they got back, Rufus was gunning for them and ready to unleash one of his famous, foghorn style tongue lashings. According to the gossip among the agents, Rufus was so loud that he could be heard from three floors away. Unfortunately for Jared, he was all too used to Rufus’ temper tantrums. It seemed as though he and Jensen ended up in his office after all of their assignments. It’s not that they were bad at their jobs, they were damn good agents. It was just that the Head Office had been leaning on the Bureau of late about the high mass of bodies that tended to pile up during their covert operations and undercover investigations. So naturally, Rufus was even more pissed than usually.  
  
“The two of you are suspended!” He barked at the end of his tirade. “Get the hell out of my office. Padalecki, go and get checked outby the ME, I’m sure Jones can handle five minutes with a live person. We don’t need you being any clumsier than usual.” Jared left without comment and he was closely followed by Jensen. He didn’t turn to look back at him but he could feel the other man’s presence behind him. Jared longed for the days when he could have just turned around and shared a knowing smile with Jensen. But he couldn’t do that anymore. They weren’t like that anymore. Jared supposed that this was the downside of working alongside someone that you’d dated in the past.  
  
It’d been a hell of year too. They’d moved in together. They’d started planning for the future and well, that had been their downfall. Now all Jared could do was pretend that he was okay with them just being ‘partners’. The whole being friends thing had been nipped in the bud after Jensen had woken up beside Jared at his apartment for the third time in a row, naked and spooned around Jared. He’d threatened to transfer to another division and Jared had practically begged him not to go. Since then, he’d made sure that they rarely fraternized with each other outside of work and it had worked out rather well. There was still the whole Jared being in love with Jensen thing but he was working on that. It was just that he’d thought that Jensen had been the  _one_  and he’d made the mistake of scaring Jensen away. If there was one thing he wished he could undo, that would be it. Not that Jensen was innocent in all of this. He’d happily strung Jared along, knowing fully well that he didn’t want the same things.  
  
“Uh, do you want me to come in with you?” Jensen asked and Jared realised that they’d come to a stop. He looked up at the medical examiner office and shook his head. “You sure? They won’t mind, I’m your partner after all.” Jared felt a jolt of pain at those words and anger coursed through him.  
  
“Yeah and you’re also the idiot who almost got me killed!” He said hotly as he moved to push the door open. “Just get out of my sight.” The last thing he heard was Jensen sighing behind him.  
  
\--  
  
Three days into their suspension, Rufus called them into his office. Jared got in a few minutes after Jensen did. Well, he was three minutes late. He supposed that Rufus wouldn’t mind, hell, Rufus probably wouldn’t be in the office when he g—  
  
“Get your damn head out of the clouds, Padalecki, and get your ass in here.” Rufus didn’t waste any time yelling at Jared the second he’d spotted him through the door. As Jared shuffled in sheepishly he spotted Jensen sitting in the chair by Rufus’ desk. He looked up at Jared and nodded in greeting, but Jared ignored him in favour of taking his own seat. He thought he heard Jensen make an unhappy noise but when he glanced back at him, Jensen had an impassive look on his face.  
  
“So,” Rufus said, as he began to pace around his spacious office, with its plush carpet and comfortable leather chairs. Honestly, Jared didn’t think it was fair that his cubicle – because open floor plan or not, the dividers made his computer area a damn cubicle – contained a crappy plastic chair. After all the agents were the ones who did all the running and shooting and…strenuous activities. Before Jared could get too lost inside his head, an elbow from Jensen brought him back to the present.  
  
“Now, we’ve been unable to find Julio Morales’s stash of illegal firearms. We think that he may have hidden it somewhere,” Rufus said as he clicked the button on the remote in his hand. The screen on the far left wall of the office lit up to show a picture of Julio and a picture of illegal firearms. Jared couldn’t help thinking that if Rufus got rid of all this fancy technological shit in his office, he’d be able to order himself a nice ergonomic chair out of the budget. Another elbow from Jensen and Jared snapped back to attention.  
  
“Now, we think that she – Sandy McCoy – his ex-girlfriend – might know where they are.”  
  
“With all due respect sir,” Jensen interrupted. “Padalecki and I are on suspension, what use is any of this to us?”  
  
“Boy, if you don’t let me finish, I’ll have you on desk duty for six months.” Jared tried not to laugh loudly as Jensen promptly shut his mouth.  
  
“Now, we could just bust into her apartment and take it all apart and find the weapons that way, but she seems to have gone clean. She has a job at the local pet store, she goes to the gym, and she takes a damn yoga class. So we’re taking a different approach. She recently uploaded a profile on a dating site.”  
  
Jared suddenly didn’t like where this was headed.  
  
“And what we’re going to do is send in two undercover agents to… _befriend_  Ms McCoy and search her premises on the down low.”  
  
“Uh, sir,” Jared said. “When you say two undercover agents you don’t mean…” Rufus had already brought up two dating profiles on the screen. One was Jared’s and the other was Jensen’s. Jared sighed in despair.  
  
“Y’all could have picked a better picture,” he said morosely.  
  
“You’ve got a month to get this done before someone starts asking questions.” Rufus ignores Jared’s comment as he strides back over to his desk.  
  
“I get that we’re the FBI and all, but isn’t this kind of exploitive?” Jared asked.  
  
When Rufus failed to answer, Jared nudged Jensen. Jensen shot him a less than pleased look but he spoke up, “I think Jared has a point, sir. It’s a little skeevy, especially over weapons. Plus isn’t Ms McCoy likely to be mourning? We could always just try searching for them ourselves? I still have a couple of contacts that have ratted on Morales before.”  
  
Rufus raised an eyebrow as he turned back to look at them, “The two of you are already on suspension. Do you really want to question my authority right now? If you do then you can forget about searching for weapons, and maybe try searching for new jobs. Is that what you’d like to do?”  
  
“No sir,” Jared and Jensen chorused in union.  
  
“Glad to hear it. If anyone asks, this meeting never happened.” Rufus picked up two booklets and tossed them at Jared and Jensen. “You’re dismissed.”  
  
As the two agents walked out of the office, Rufus’ cell phone started to buzz violently.  
  
“What?” he barked, as he answered the call. “Yes. I told them. And no, if anything happens, you’re the one who’s going to be held liable. What? Of course I didn’t tell them. If anything I hope this works, I’m tired of watching Padalecki walked around like a lovesick puppy all the time. Don’t get me started on Ackles!”  
  


# Part One

 

  
Jensen invited Jared over to his apartment for drinks after the meeting with Rufus. For some reason, Jared had agreed and he found himself awkwardly sitting on Jensen’s couch as the other man rooted around in his fridge for some beer. The worst part was that it was a Saturday evening. If Jensen hadn’t gone grocery shopping on Friday, there’d no beer. And because Jared knew Jensen well, he knew that the other man had mostly likely spent the entirety of the three days asleep.  
  
“How’s your head?” Jensen asked as he came back to the living room with two bottles of Coke in his hand.  _He forgot to go grocery shopping then_. “I  _am_  sorry for what happened. You know that right?”  
  
“Mm,” Jared said, busying himself with unscrewing the cap so he could avoid Jensen’s gaze. Jared sometimes couldn’t function around Jensen. Especially when they were both clad in in t-shirts and jeans and just being two normal guys. He tended not to think about the job during downtime because it was just easier that way. But the trouble was that when he wasn’t thinking of the job, he was thinking about Jensen.  
  
“Come on, don’t be mad,” Jensen added softly as he sat next to Jared. “I was just…having a bad day and I should have been more careful.”  
  
“Yeah, you should.” Jared couldn’t even stay mad with Jensen for a week. God, he was pathetic.  
  
“So, how are we going to do this?” Jensen said. “I mean, I know that we’ve both ‘replied’ to her dating profile, but we can’t both date her can we? So I was thinking that I’d ask her out and you’d just…hang back and watch from afar, maybe search her apartment when we’re out together.”  
  
Even though Jared loved Jensen so hard that he felt like he’d run out of air, sometimes he  _hated_  him. It wasn’t even Jensen’s fault but sometimes Jared got so angry that he just wanted to punch him.  
  
This was one of those times. Jensen really wanted him to watch as he seduced another woman, kissed her and possibly had sex with her? Not that Jensen would do that, but still. Fuck him. Like Jared couldn’t seduce this Sandy all by himself.  
  
“No,” he said sternly.  
  
“No?” Jensen said, with a puzzled look on his face.  
  
“You always get to do the cool stuff during our undercover work, while I’m stuck in the fucking surveillance van!” And okay, so maybe Jared sounded like a complete whiny bastard. But he had a very good point. He was just as capable as Jensen was. So maybe he wasn’t a smooth operator like Jensen, maybe he didn’t ooze natural charm and charisma. But he was Jared Padalecki. He could do anything that he put his mind to.  
  
“You’ll never get her to fall for you,” Jensen replied with a laugh.  
  
“The same way I never got you to fall for me?” Jared said sharply and all traces of laughter vanished from Jensen’s face. “Get your head out of your ass, Jensen.”  
  
Jensen sighed. “Look, this isn’t about us, Jared. This is about the job.”  
  
“Don’t patronise me!”  
  
“This is why it’s hard to talk to you sometimes,” Jensen said angrily. “You just…you  _twist_  everything!”  
  
“Really?” Jared shot back. “Did you even think before you opened your mouth? You’re an asshole, you know that? I’m so sick of your—mmff!” Jared was cut off as Jensen leaned forward and kissed him, his arms coming up to circle around Jared as he began to reciprocate. And then Jared  _realised_  what he was doing and he shoved Jensen backwards.  
  
“What the  _hell_  do you think you’re playing at?” he yelled. Jensen just glared back at him, his chest heaving slightly as he fought to regain his breath. Jared caught sight of Jensen’s plump, kiss-swollen lips and did his best not to lean in again.  
  
“Oh please, don’t act like you came here for anything else,” Jensen spat out. “Just don’t.” That only served to make Jared feel angrier. It was Jensen who’d been all gung-ho about them being friends  _without_ benefits, him who’d said that they could only ever be friends. Since when did drinks mean ‘Come over for a quick fuck’?!  
  
“I came here because  _you_  asked me over,” Jared spluttered. “For a drink!”  
  
“I’m not stopping you from leaving,” Jensen said.  
  
Jared hated himself a little for knowing right away that he wasn’t going anywhere.  
  
\--  
  
“I slept with Jensen last night,” Jared said forlornly over brunch the next morning. He barely noticed as Chad dropped his fork and turned to glare at him disdainfully.  
  
“Dude, I’m  _eating_.”  
  
“He was a total jerk about it too!” Jared continued on, not caring too much about Chad’s opinion on the whole thing. “But…I just couldn’t say no. After this job, I’m asking for a transfer.” Chad snorted at that as he went back to his eggs. Jared didn’t blame him; he was pretty much a broken record. But he couldn’t stop thinking about how gentle Jensen had been last night. Even though it’d started off angry and fast paced, they’d slowed things down as they’d reached the bedroom. It’d been sensual and passionate and just…Jared hated the way that Jensen continued to mindfuck him.  
  
“Of course you are,” Chad said dryly. “Just like you were the last time. Oh and the time before that. And the time before that.”  
  
“I’m serious this time,” Jared replied. “I woke up this morning and…he wasn’t even there, and as I was getting dressed, I found a lacy, red bra under his bed. I know that it isn’t mine!”  
  
“Whoa, whoa,” Chad said. “Did you keep it? Can I have it?”  
  
“You’re a pig.”  
  
“What? I was just curious!”  
  
“Anyway, whatever. This means that he’s moved on! I’m just…another notch on his bedposts. God, I haven’t even slept with anyone else since we broke up.”  
  
“Maybe you should transfer out of the division,” Chad mused as he wiped at his mouth with a napkin. “That way you get to move somewhere else and get over him without him being there to ruin it all.” It sounded like a good idea. Jared was obviously never going to get Jensen out from under his skin while they were still living in the same town and working at the same job.  
  
One last job. He could do that. And if Jensen wanted to make it a competition, he could do that, too.  
  
This was war.  
  
\--

  
When Jensen got back from his grocery run Jared had gone. All that remained was rumpled, dirty sheets and Jensen sighed to himself as he set about cleaning up. He hadn't really known what to do when he’d woken up with Jared pressed closely behind him, his warmth seeping into Jensen’s skin. For a second, he’d leaned into the embrace. But then he’d remembered.  
  
They weren’t like that anymore.  
  
Jensen sighed to himself again as he spotted the lacy, red bra at the foot of the bed. Jared had probably seen it Sleeping with him had been a mistake, Jensen knew that. He just couldn't help himself when Jared was around. There was always this underlying tension sizzling under his skin that Jensen couldn't ignore. It made him reckless. He knew deep down that it was shitty thing to do especially after he had that freak out and threatened to leave. And of course he'd gone and implied that he didn't think that Jared was good at his job.  
  
"I slept with Jared last night." Jensen finally relented and called his best friend Chris when it became apparent that he could not just brush this away.  
  
“Hi Jen,” Chris say dryly. “I’m fine, thanks for asking. Seriously, do I have to rat on you to your Momma to get some decent phone etiquette outta you?”  
  
“This is  _serious,_  Chris!” Jensen said hotly as he began to load the sheets into his machine.  
  
“Okay, okay,” Chris replied. “Is he still here?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Then what’s the problem? It’s not like you’re planning on getting back together or anything. Shit like this happens. Get over it. After all, it’s not like you haven’t been bumping uglies with half of the male population in town since you two broke up.” Jensen didn’t bother replying to that. He knew all too well just what Chris thought about his love life. Since when did breaking up with someone mean that you couldn’t play the field a little? He was sure that Jared had dated other people as well.  
  
“No, you’re right,” he said instead. “It’s not a big deal. It happens. Thanks.” Chris was halfway through saying something when Jensen hung up. McCoy had agreed to meet him for a drink via their chat on the dating website. His guys – Steve and Riley – had been taking care of the communication for him. He trusted them to be smooth and charming enough to entice Sandy and it seemed to have worked.  
  
He definitely had this in the bag.  
  
\--  
  
Hours later, Jensen swaggered across the floor of the bar and smiled as he spotted McCoy sitting in a booth on her own. She had her iPhone out and was engrossed in sending a message. He fixed up his collar and made his way over to the booth, sliding in smoothly as she looked up. Within seconds she was flustered as Jensen grinned at her.  
  
Jensen leaned forward and gave her a flattering look. “You must be Sandy. That picture on the dating site doesn’t do you any justice. You’re even more beautiful in person.”  
  
“Smooooooth!” Steve chirped into his ear and Jensen tried not to grimace visibly. He’d warned Riley and Steve about distracting him.  
  
“You must be Jensen,” Sandy said with a giggle as she tucked an errant strand of hair back. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  
  
“Aw, sweetheart,” Jensen replied as he reached over and pressed a kiss onto her hand. “Pleasure’s all mine.” Soon after that, they ordered drinks and a bite to eat and moved onto small talk as they ate.  
  
Jensen hated small talk.  
  
It was one of the things that had been so great about dating Jared. They’d just kind of fallen right into it and eliminated all of the awkward first date topics. Jared usually carried the conversations and he didn’t expect Jensen to pitch in unless he had something to say. Jensen was more of a come hither kinda guy. He gave people the  _look_  and they were like putty in his hands. Unfortunately for him, Sandy liked to talk.  
  
“So, you’re a security consultant?” she said. “What’s that like?”  
  
“Hard,” Steve said in Jensen’s ear. “But you’re good at what you do.” Jensen tried not to groan out loud as he quickly contemplated his answer.  
  
“It’s hard work, obviously,” he said. “But, that’s the downside of any job, isn’t it? I’m just lucky enough to be extremely good at what I do.” Sandy made a content noise and smiled up at him as she took another forkful of her salad. Jensen watched her quietly as he fought the urge to start tapping his fingers on the table. She seemed like she was enjoying his company but that wasn’t good enough. Sandy had to be fucking  _enthralled_  by the time she left this damn bar.  
  
He was just about to ask about her work at her pet store when he spotted something in the corner of his eye. A man who looked suspiciously like Jared was sitting in a booth further back. Jensen barely managed to hide his smirk as Sandy looked back up.  
  
It was  _so_  on.

 

Meanwhile, Jared was laying out his plans with his own team - Chad and Aldis. Both of whom were currently giving him terrible dating advice.

  
“Look, you have to be all slick and charming and shit,” Chad was saying as Jared sat on his couch with his laptop. He’d been talking to Sandy for a few hours and she seemed nice enough. “Buy her expensive gifts and perfume and shit or something. Hey, tell her that you’re a billionaire! Aldis can create a fake website and online presence for you in like, an hour!”  
  
“An hour?” Aldis echoed. “Dude, I can do it in twenty minutes.” Jared ignored them both as he typed away at his laptop, grinning as Sandy sent him a wink on the site. He knew that Jensen was more likely to come up with something as skeevy as multi-billionaire so he’d stayed away from that. He was just going to be plain old Jared who grew up on a farm in Texas and had strong affinity for dogs.  
  
“What?” Aldis and Chad groaned in unison when Jared told them what his plan was.  
  
“So why are we here then?” Chad said in a disgruntled tone. Jared knew that he’d get a lot of shit from his best friend later but he shrugged it off.  
  
“I need you to spy on Jensen. Hack into Sandy’s profile and see what he’s saying to her, stuff like that.”  
  
“Hold up,” Aldis said. “Isn’t that…cheating?” Jared scoffed at that. Cheating didn’t exist to people like Jensen. Hell, he was probably watching them too.  
  
“Who cares?” he said eventually. “Just do it.” Aldis shrugged and started typing away at his own laptop, his brow furrowed in concentration while Chad just glared at Jared.  
  
“Okay, they’re meant to be meeting in a bar called Smiths at….well, they should be there now.” Jared didn’t waste any time sitting around as Aldis finished speaking. That bar was only a few minutes away from his apartment. He could go over and have a look, see how Jensen was playing this.  
  
“Uh, come on, what if he sees you?” Chad said unhelpfully and Jared ignored him once again. “Jared, come on, man.” Jared was out of the door before Chad could try and talk him out of it.  
  
\--  
  
Jared put on a dark leather jacket, and grabbed his sunglasses before he left. He knew that Jensen would probably spot him but it was inconspicuous enough for Sandy not to notice him. He’d done enough tailing to know that normal people never spotted these things. When he got there, he could sense the lull in their conversation as Sandy spent more time eating her salad than she did paying attention to Jensen. Jared snorted to himself. Jensen had always sucked at making conversation with people he didn’t know. This was to Jared’s benefit in this case. All Jensen had to do was bomb this date and Jared would swoop in and charm Sandy.  
  
Of course, Jensen picked that moment to glance up and spot Jared. Fuck.  
  
Jared watched as Jensen somehow turned up the notch to fucking  _unstoppable_  and soon Sandy was grinning and laughing so hard that the other patrons were looking over towards their table. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. As they were leaving, Jensen leaned in and  _kissed_  her. There was no mistaking the look of adoration in Sandy’s eyes as she and Jensen strode past Jared’s booth. Jensen turned back and winked as they reached the exit.  
  
He fucking  _winked_.  
  
\--  
  
“He knocked it outta the park,” Jared said when he got back to his apartment. “She was smitten.  _Smitten_.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” Chad said triumphantly as he looked up from his phone. “She can’t have been that impressed. She just sent you a message agreeing to meet up tomorrow at the animal shelter.”  
  
“The one down the street?” Jared asked as he grabbed the phone from Chad and read the message. “I can do that.” Aldis emerged from the kitchen with another phone in his hand.  
  
“I’ve already hacked into their database and printed out names and pictures of all the animals they have now,” he said. Jared frowned at him.  
  
“I already know most of them,” Jared replied. “I volunteer there when I’m not working.” Chad muttered something about how Jared was a dweeb as Aldis shrugged and handed Jared the booklet.  
  
“All I know is that the Morales case meant you had virtually no downtime for two months, I’m pretty sure that they’ve taken in some new ones in that time.”  
  
Jared supposed that the man had a point.  
  
\--  
  
Sandy was gorgeous. That was the first thought in Jared’s mind. And if he wasn’t a. working and b. hopelessly in love with Jensen, she’d be the kind of girl that he’d maybe consider asking out. She was a lot shorter than he was, and she had wavy, dark brown hair and friendly, brown eyes.  
  
“Okay Jared, me and Aldis are going to talk you through this,” Chad said into his ear. “No dorky jokes. No height jokes. No stories about the time you and Jensen had a dog for a week but had to get rid of it because he was allergic.”  
  
“No stories about Jensen.  _Period,”_  Aldis added and Jared tuned them out. He could do this by himself.  
  
“So, do you have any pets?” Sandy said as they got to work cleaning out the dog kennels.  
  
“Nah,” Jared replied, making sure to lower his voice carefully. “I wanted one, but my ex was allergic and it just wasn’t practical.” He could hear Chad and Aldis groaning in his ear and he just about managed to refrain from rolling his eyes.  
  
“I have a picture though of the dog we had for a while, we called him Spotty because he had all of these brown spots all over it him. He was  _adorable_.” He pulled out his phone and brought up the pictures and smirked to himself as Sandy cooed over them. That shut Chad and Aldis up pretty damn quickly. Through the corner of his eye he spotted a man with longish, blonde hair walking past them and he snorted gently. Steve. He knew that Jensen would be watching him somehow.  
  
“Hey,” he said, drawing Sandy’s attention back to him. “Do you maybe want to grab lunch when we’re done here?”  
  
\--  
  
Jared was halfway through his BLT sub when he excused himself politely and quickly followed the retreating Jensen to the men’s room of the café. He slammed Jensen up against the wall as the door clicked shut and glared at him.  
  
“Look here, competition or not, we’re still  _partners_. Why are you trying to sabotage this?" Jared didn’t mention the fact that he only knew this because Aldis had hacked into Jensen’s communication feed. Jensen smirked as Jared spoke, his green eyes twinkling as Jensen glared down at him. He'd always gotten off on the way that Jared was a few inches taller than him. And Jared was pretty sure that it wasn't Jensen's gun currently digging into his thigh. As if on cue, Jensen leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Jared's lips. It was rough and hot and just, Jared couldn't do this anymore. He pushed Jensen back and stepped away. In that moment, he made up his mind for good.  
  
"I'm not doing this anymore," he said. "Me and you? We're done. I can't keep putting myself through this. I tell myself that we're partners, that you need me. But really, I'm just the dumbass who covers for you. Our entire division thinks that I'm incompetent  _because_  I'm always covering for you. I'm not doing that anymore. After this case, I'm handing in a transfer request."  
  
"What?" Jensen sounded stunned and Jared felt a burst of euphoria. That was right. He was going to be the one leaving this time and he was not going to be persuaded to stay. Not by Jensen and not by anyone else. “Dude, really? You can’t handle a little competition.”  
  
“Oh I can handle it just fine.” Jared snapped, anger coursing through his veins as he stared at Jensen. “But you never play fair. So don’t think for a second that I’m going to sit back and let you win this.”  
  
“Well,” Jensen said slowly. “Then may the best man win.” Jared sent him one last scathing look before he brushed a hand down his shirt, plastered on his best smile and made his way back to the seating area.  
  
“Sorry about that,” he said as Sandy gave him a questioning look.  
  
“It’s fine,” she replied with a smile. “So, tell me more about the time you had a dog for a week.”  
  
Jared grinned at her.

 

  
Jensen wasn’t going to deny that Jared’s words had shaken him up a little. Jared was like, the Robin to his Batman. The Mary Jane to his Spiderman, the Lois Lane to his Superman and the Pepper Potts to his Iron Man. They were  _partners_  like Jared had said. Jared couldn’t just up and leave. And seriously, since when did he start using comic books to describe relationships? He didn’t even like comics. That had been Jared’s thing.  _We’re work partners first and foremost,_ Jared would say, like that meant anything. Jensen supposed that it did, but he was never as sentimental as Jared was. The only reason he hadn’t left when he’d threatened to was because Jared looked genuinely distraught at the thought of him leaving. Back then he hadn’t set out to hurt Jared; he’d just been trying to do the right thing.  
  
But right now? There was an ache in his chest at the thought of Jared being so sick of him that he wanted to leave. Jensen didn’t know how to deal with it and quite frankly, he wasn’t  _ready_ to deal with it. So he decided to do what he did best. Be the best fucking FBI Agent the Bureau had to offer, even if it meant showing up Jared.  
  
All was fair in love and war.  
  
\--  
  
Now that Sandy was almost certainly interested in him, Jensen and his team had to figure out a way to gain her trust and get into her house. It would’ve been a lot easier if she lived in an apartment block or complex but she owned her own house and only had a basic security system. Breaking in was pretty much a last resort at this point. Especially after all the groundwork that Jensen had done.  
  
“You could sleep with her,” Riley mused. “Undercover agents do that shit all the time, right?”  
  
“Yeah,” Jensen agreed. “The  _skeevy_ ones.” Steve shot Jensen a concerned look and Jensen ignored it. He knew that Steve had heard what Jared had said but he wasn’t in the mood to discuss it.  
  
“We could make it so that you fix a leaky pipe or something,” Steve said when it seemed like the conversation was about to stagnate. “Jensen Ackles, handyman.” Jensen sighed to himself. They were never going to get anywhere at this rate.  
  
“Hey, did you manage to hack into Jared’s comms with his team?” It had taken Riley a few days to set that up. The man was supposed to be a damn tech nerd. Jensen knew that he should have asked Aldis before Jared snapped him up.  
  
“I did!” Riley said. He clicked a few buttons on his computer and the sound of Jared’s voice filtered into the room.  
  
“… _we have to get into her house somehow,”_ Jared was saying. _“Nothing too shady or illegal, it has to seem like it’s her idea.”_ There was a pause after that and Jensen listened avidly for what Jared would say next. He wasn’t expecting to hear,  _“Nice try, Jensen. We know that you’re listening. Try harder next time.”_ There was click, followed by silence. Both Jensen and Steve turned to face Riley who shrugged at them.  
  
“Aldis is a freaking  _genius_. I tried my best.”  
  
Jensen was never listening to Steve again.  
  
\--  
  
Jensen met Chris for drinks that night even though he didn’t really feel like socialising. But technically, they were suspended so he guessed that he didn’t have to be up early the next day if he didn’t want to. Speaking of work…despite the fact that they didn’t hear any of Jared’s actual plans, Jensen thought that making it seem like Sandy’s idea was actually a pretty good idea. Jared always had the best plans. Like the time with the bacon lube. Jensen giggled at the memory and he felt Chris prying his fingers away from the bottle.  
  
“I think you’ve had enough,” Chris said. “Isn’t your head supposed to be clear for the case you’re working on?”  
  
“I just…I miss him, you know. It wasn’t…I didn’t mind that things were shitty between us because I could still see him. Still smell that cologne he wears that drives me crazy…I could get my fix.” Jensen knew that he was rambling and talking shit. But he also knew that Chris knew that it was just his way of venting. Get hammered and let it all spill out.  
  
“He’s like a drug, you know? And I’m like…addic…addicted. That’s a word right? Yeah, I’m that. And just, I miss him, you know? Have I mentioned that? I kind of wish that I’d begged him to take me back….what am I going to do without him? God, I’m going to get myself  _killed!_  Or worse - someone else! Oh my god!”  
  
Jensen had always been a stupid drunk.  
  
\--  
  
He woke up the next afternoon with a killer hangover and Chris relaying everything he’d said to him in the  _loudest_ way possible.  
  
“Thanks for listening to me man,” He said when Chris was done. “But me and Jared are done. I…I’ll get over it for good this time.”  
  
He ignored the,  _No you won’t_ , that Chris mumbled under his breath and made his way over to the bistro where he was due to meet Sandy.  
  
She was all smiles and bright and cheery and Jensen stifled a groan. He wasn’t good at this schmoozing shit, especially when he had to do it with a fucking hangover.  
  
“You look a little worse for wear,” she said, her voice loud and clear as Jensen took a sip of his water. “Rough night?”  
  
“You could say that,” Jensen said as he sent a sheepish smile her way. “Tequila is not my friend.”  
  
The sound of laughter made Jensen feel as though someone was drilling into his skull.  
  
\--  
  
“She’s on her phone,” Steve said as Jensen slid into the back of the surveillance van. “To someone called Keisha?” Jensen was ashamed to admit that he had no idea who this Keisha was. There hadn’t been much on Sandy’s friends and family in the information packet that Rufus had given them. And he hadn’t made much of an effort to find out.  
  
Jared probably had.  
  
 _Screw Jared_ , the voice in his head said and Jensen vehemently agreed with it.  
  
 _Oh yeah, I bet you’d like to._  
  
Jensen pretended not hear that voice.  
  
 _“So…how was it?!”_ A female voice (that Jensen took to be Keisha) asked.  
  
 _“It was nice. I mean, Jensen was a little standoffish today, but he’s usually charming. And he is always stunningly handsome._ ” Sandy replied and Jensen couldn’t help smirking to himself.  _“But I had dinner with Jared last night, and he’s just the sweetest guy. He’s cute and dorky and just, really sweet. Too sweet. Is that what I really want? I know that if I was to pick out who was more reliable, I’d say Jared but…I want some excitement. Passion! I just…I don’t know what to do.”_  
  
 _“Keep on dating both of them,_ ” Keisha replied.  _“You’ll make the right call in the end. You don’t need me to tell you that you don’t need another guy like fucking Julio and his ever-present henchmen. I don’t even know how the two of you managed to have uninterrupted sex!”_  
  
 _“Keisha!”_ Sandy said exasperatedly, but she giggled nonetheless.  
  
“ _Either way, I’ve got your back okay?_ ” Keisha said. “ _And I totally get first dibs on whoever the unlucky guy his. Both of them are smoking hot, girl.”_

  
Jared sighed as Sandy hung up and he whipped off the headset he’d been wearing. Nice. Sweet. Is that what Jensen thought of Jared? That he was this nice, sweet reliable guy who’d always be there? He was sick of being the fucking nice guy.  
  
“Maybe I should change my image,” he said to Chad. “I can do douchey. I’ll wear a white t-shirt, throw on a leather jacket, tight black jeans and slick my hair pack. I can pull that off, right?”  
  
“Sure,” Chad said. “If you were auditioning for the role of Danny Zuko, you’d totally pull that look off.” Jared had to concede the point. It wasn’t his style to change his image for anyone. Besides, if Sandy was wary of hooking up with another Julio, she’d be more inclined towards sweet and nice. Not that any of this mattered; all he needed to do was get access to her house somehow.  
  
He was sure that he’d come up with something.  
  
\--  
  
The best part of being Jensen’s ex was that Jared knew exactly what he was capable of. So when Sandy agreed to come over to Jensen’s place to have dinner the next week, Jared had his own plans in place. He’d watched as Jensen had lifted Sandy’s keys and he knew that Jensen had copied them. He knew either Steve or Riley would be sent to get into her house.  
  
“Hey, Aldis,” he called as he entered his living room. “Is there a way you could create a fundraiser that’ll run from Tuesday to Friday of next week?”  
  
“Maybe,” Aldis replied in between bites of the extra-large pizza Jared had ordered. “What kind of fundraiser are we talkin’ about?”  
  
“One for the animal shelter,” Jared said, grinning at the sheer genius of the plan. “I’ll speak to Sandy’s boss at the pet store, and see if we can come to an arrangement to get her to help out. She won’t be able to have dinner with Jensen until Saturday.”  
  
“Okay, why is that important?”  
  
“He always forgets to go grocery shopping on Friday and he refuses to go on the weekend. Too many snot-nosed brats and pushchairs.”  
  
“Give me a day,” Aldis said and Jared’s grin widened.  
  
\--  
  
Sandy was so ecstatic over Jared’s fundraiser that she stretched herself as high as possible and kissed Jared softly on the lips. Jared didn’t know how Aldis had managed to get all the planning approved in a day but the man was a genius. Jared didn’t feel anything when she kissed him but there was a part of him that was genuinely glad to see her pleased. Undercover operation aside, he reckoned that they’d be good friends in another life. Maybe even this one, someday. As she was in a good mood, Jared decided to press ahead with the next phase of his plan.  
  
“At least something’s going right this week,” he started off tentatively. “My buddy Chad’s turning 30 next week and I wanted to throw him a party on Saturday. But my landlord isn’t having it and his place isn’t big enough. It sucks that we won’t be able to have one this year. I’m starting to wish that I had a house of my own.” He watched as Sandy processed this information and turned it over in her head.  
  
“I have a house,” she blurted out. Her cheeks blooming pink as she realised what she’d said. “Uh, you can use it. So long as you promise not to damage anything.”  
  
“Oh, really?” Jared said, smiling at her brightly. “I mean, you don’t have to. I wasn’t hinting at it or anything. But that’d be great.”  
  
“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, why not? Plus, I haven’t thrown a party in  _ages_. Haven’t felt like it what with my ex and all. It’s time that I had some fun!”  
  
“Atta girl.”  
  
Sandy giggled again as she shook her head at Jared fondly.  
  
Jared hoped that Jensen was watching this.  
  
\--  
  
The worst thing about undercover work was that you had to immerse yourself in the role you were playing. Jared didn’t really mind the whole pretending to be someone else thing. He’d wanted to be an actor back when he was about twelve. But it was hard work. Between keeping up the act and trying to remember that you were doing a job, it was hard to remember who you were sometimes.  
  
So when Sandy casually asked about Jared’s love life as they were selling cupcakes to people at the fundraiser, he said, “Oh, work gets in the way a lot. It’s been pretty non-existent over the last couple of years. Apart from when my ex wants to hook up of course. He just expects me to give it up whenever he wants it. Asshole.”  
  
There was a short silence as Jared realised what he said. Sandy gave him a strange look before she shrugged and smiled at him sadly.  
  
“I think I know how you feel.” She looked like she was going to say more but suddenly, Jared caught sight of a tall man, with short cropped brown hair striding over towards the stands they’d set up outside the shelter. Jensen. Sandy excused herself and made her way over to Jensen and Jared watched as Jensen grinned down at her and kissed on the cheek. He wasn’t sure why the sight made him so angry but he was forced to push it down as he served another customer.  
  
“Chad,” he hissed as the customer wandered off. “What the hell is Ackles doing here?” There was a burst of static before Chad answered and Jared felt himself getting more annoyed.  
  
“Dude, I don’t know,” Chad said. “I’ve been reading their texts and monitoring the phone calls and  _nothing_. He must have just surprised her.”  
  
“Texts?” Jared spluttered. “What kind of texts?”  
  
“The kind that I’m not going to read out loud to you.”  
  
“Are they  _flirty_  texts?”  
  
“Maybe.”  
  
Jared’s face darkened as he looked back over to where Jensen was talking to Sandy. He watched as he kissed her again and turned to leave without so much a backwards glance at Jared. Not that Jared wanted Jensen to be looking at him anyway.  
  
“Who was that?” he asked as Sandy returned, huge grin plastered across her face.  
  
“Just a friend,” she said coyly. “He was checking to see when I’ll be free for uh…di-drinks this week. I told him Saturday. I’m probably going to sic my best friend on you to make sure that you and your friends stay in line at that party. God, it’s only 3pm and I’m  _exhausted_.”  
  
“Groceries,” Chad said in his ear and Jared grinned. Sandy made a happy noise and he realised that he was still looking at her. “Jared, you’re a genius.”  
  
Hell, maybe he was.

  
By the time Friday rolled around, Jensen was feeling fairly confident that his plan to get into Sandy’s house would work. He knew all about Jared’s party and he was feeling pretty elated over the fact that Sandy had chosen dinner with him over that. It just made his plan even better. He’d send over another agent to get in and search the place while the party was in full swing. This whole thing wasn’t even a contest anymore. A party? Jared should have known better than that. So he decided to spend the whole day in bed, watching DVDs. Around 8pm, he wondered if there was something he’d forgotten but he shrugged it off and went back to watching Gossip Girl.  
  
\--  
  
Saturday came around and Jensen was still feeling upbeat about that evening. He wasn’t stupid enough to actually cook for the girl. No, he’d called Gianni’s – his local Italian restaurant – and order something around 5pm, store it in the oven and heat it up before Sandy arrived. Easy as pie. He got up at midday and made breakfast and downed three cups of coffee before making his way back to bed. He probably should have checked in on Steve and Riley by now but they were decent agents. They knew what their job was. He was asleep within seconds.  
  
Of course, when his alarm went off 5 hours later, his mom picked that exact moment to call. And well, usually he could bullshit his way through a conversation with her easily. Yes, he was eating well. No, he hadn’t been in bed all day. Yes, he was doing well at work. No, he wasn’t working too hard. No, he didn’t have a boy/girlfriend. Until Jared of course, who she had  _adored_. In fact she’d adored Jared so much that he hadn’t gotten around to telling her that they’d broken up, even though it’d been well over a year. At first, they’d been shipped out to Bolivia to search for a fugitive and he’d had no time. And then there’d been the bank robbery in Omaha that had been related to one of their current cases. After that there was the undercover narcotics case. That was followed by the whole Julio Morales drug thing. It’d just been easier to not say anything. He refused to think about there being another reason.  
  
If anything, it just made him regret starting things with Jared at all. It had been Jared’s fault of course for putting up with his bullshit. Jensen had been through six partners in four months before he was assigned Jared. This weird, goofy hot man-child that was fresh out of Quantico. Instead of bitching and moaning like his old partners had, Jared just did what he wanted. If Jensen was being difficult he’d roll his eyes and ignore him. But he never once complained to the boss or their co-workers. Jensen liked that about him and soon they’d formed a friendship. The best thing about Jared was that he loved to talk. Of course that was also the worst thing because three years after they’d first become partners, Jared was suddenly this twenty eight year old man, talking about settling down, making roots and finding ‘the one.’ It had been bullshit to Jensen at first until he’d gotten caught up in the romanticism of it all. Jared made it sounds like something that he’d want. Of course, it took Jared almost dating Mark Pellegrino and turning down Matt freaking Bomer to make him realise that Jared wanted that with  _him_.  
  
Of course, none of that meant anything since he’d thrown it all away.  
  
\--  
  
Gianni’s line was disconnected. Only then did Jensen start to worry. So Jared had always been the better cook, but at least Jensen could boil pasta. He could whip something up before Sandy got here. However, a quick search through his kitchen and he realised that there was nothing. He’d forgotten to go grocery shopping  _again_.  
  
“Steve, you there?” he said, once he’d shoved in his earpiece.  
  
“Whaaa,” was Steve’s less than eloquent response, though it was quickly followed by, “Uh. I mean, yeah. I’m here. What’s up?” Jensen bit back the insult that had been brimming on his tongue.  
  
“Where’s McCoy?” he asked, not caring if he sounded cold.  
  
“On her way to your place,” Steve said. “Is there a problem?”  
  
“Yes!” Jensen yelled. “The restaurant closest to here is  _closed_  and I have nothing to cook for her. She’s not going to stick around while I order her a fucking pizza.”  
  
Steve huffed, as if to say that this was in no way  _his_  fault. Jensen couldn’t really give a fuck.  
  
“So, take her out to dinner.”  
  
“Huh,” Jensen said as he glanced as his watch. “That might work.”  
  
It didn’t.  
  
\--  
  
Jensen was dressed up in a green button-down and black dress pants when he opened his front door. He was distracted with thoughts of the day that Jared had bought said shirt so he didn’t notice the apprehensive look on Sandy’s face.  
  
“Sandy, hey,” he said, as he threw her a dazzling smile. “You’re looking as beautiful as ever.”  
  
“Ha, that’s not true at all,” she said as she dithered in the doorway. “But thanks.”  
  
“Look,” Jensen said. “Do you mind if we go out to eat instead? It’s way too early for me to inflict my cooking skills on you.” Sandy gave him a small smile and Jensen’s grin faltered. He could already tell that he wasn’t going to like her answer.  
  
“I’m still pretty burnt out from the fundraiser,” she admitted. “I just didn’t want to cancel on you in case you’d already made something. I kind of just want to go home and make sure that Jared’s friends aren’t trashing my place.”  
  
“What’s happening at your place?” Jensen asked innocently, already forming a new plan in his mind. “Some kind of party?”  
  
“Yeah, I stupidly offered up my house to some guy that I barely even know,” Sandy said tiredly. “You can come if you want, keep me company while a bunch of people I don’t know run wild.”  
  
Jensen’s smile reformed, twice as bright and twice as dazzling.

 

  
The party was in a full swing as Jared made his way up to the top floor of Sandy’s house. Aldis has told him that Sandy was on her way back with Jensen. Jared was ashamed to admit that his plan had backfired on him. Why would he want Jensen to not have groceries when it was Sandy’s house he wanted to search?  
  
“It’s obvious,” Chad had said as he sipped at the already spiked punch. “You don’t care about the case. You just want to prove that you can win the girl. That you can put the moves on anyone you want and get ‘em. It’s like, Jealousy 101.”  
  
“You’re not making much sense, Chad.”  
  
“You still love Jensen,” Chad said, not caring as his punch sloshed at the sides of his glass and spilled onto the floor. “And for some reason you’re so fixated on beating him that you’re not thinking about the case.” Jared considered that for a few seconds and he sighed to himself. Chad was right. He’d been compromising the case over this weird, pathetic pseudo-competition that he had going on with Jensen. And now he’d only given himself a twenty minute window to search Sandy’s house for the illegal weapons.  
  
He’d clapped Chad on the shoulder and made his way upstairs.  
  
\--  
  
Jared was in the bedroom when he heard footsteps bounding up the stairs. He quickly threw himself into her walk-in closet and watched through a crack in the door as Sandy entered the bedroom. Jared had to bite back a gasp as Jensen strode in after her and shut the door gently. That bastard.  
  
“The house doesn’t seem like it’s been trashed,” Jensen said as he sat on the edge of Sandy’s king bed. “Must be a relief.”  
  
“Yeah,” Sandy said with a breathy laugh. She moved to sit down next to Jensen and leaned in towards him and put her head on his shoulder. “I feel bad for not trusting Jared. He’s a good….friend. A good friend.”  
  
“Oh, I bet,” Jensen said softly and Jared would have sneered at the words but they sounded sincere, wistful almost. Jared couldn’t help thinking about the time they’d been together.  
  
It was an accident, Jared had decided. Him falling in love with Jensen was a pure accident. Jensen was just the opposite of what Jared thought he wanted in a partner. He was rude, arrogant, cocky, overly cynical and too blunt. But it took Jared all of a day to see that there was someone with a good heart under all of that exterior. Jensen was smart, funny and a good person to be around when he opened up to you. That’s the person he’d fallen in love with. Naturally, it took Jensen a while to catch on but when he did, it was the best moment of Jared’s life. Looking back on it now, maybe they shouldn’t have rushed into a relationship. Heck, maybe Jared should have said no when Jensen finally worked up the nerve to ask him out. It would have saved him a whole lot of pain.  
  
Jared believed that in the end, they wore their relationship out. They’d work together, go home together and neither of them could breathe. At least that’s what Jared told himself. He still wasn’t sure why Jensen had ended things. He’d told all his friends that they’d both wanted different things but the truth was that he has no idea what Jensen wanted. All he knew was that Jensen apparently didn’t want kids with  _him_. It hadn’t even been a serious discussion about parenthood or anything, they’d just been watching some stupid movie on television and Jared had made an offhand remark.  
  
“I’m never going to let our kids do that.” He hadn’t even expected a response but Jensen had frozen beside him.  
  
“You want kids?” he’d asked and Jared had shrugged. He didn’t want them right at the moment, but he couldn’t lie and say that he hadn’t thought about it. Jensen didn’t like that answer.  
  
“We’re field operatives! Our job brings us to the brink of death  _repeatedly_  – what good would we be to kids? Hell, everything we do is so goddamn classified that they might not even know who we really are, ever. Is that what you want?”  
  
“Look, forget I said anything,” had been Jared’s response because there was no point arguing when Jensen got this way. He wouldn’t let Jared get a word in edgeways and then Jared would get mad and start yelling and nothing good would come of it.  
  
“I can’t forget something like that,” Jensen said slowly. “This is just going to come back to bite us in the ass.”  
  
“Or,” Jared had said in response, “we move past it and forget that Jared opened his big stupid mouth.”  
  
“Right,” Jensen said angrily. “Cause pretending that this never happened, pretending that you don’t know that I never want kids is a good idea. You’ll just end up hating me.”  
  
“That’s never gonna happen.”  
  
“Because I’m calling this quits,” Jensen had said. “You’ll find someone who wants what you do. I’m sorry that it isn’t me.”  
  
Jared was thrown out of memory lane when Sandy said, “So, before you discovered the joys of online dating, what was your love life like?” Jared sighed as he heard Jensen give a throaty chuckle.  
  
“That’s a loaded question,” he replied. “I’ve pretty much only been in two serious relationships.”  
  
“Wish I could say the same,” Sandy said. “So, what were they like?” Jensen laughs again and Jared could hear that he was annoyed. But still, he was curious so he remained where he was and tried to pretend that he wasn’t in a freaking closet. He might have been an FBI agent but he wasn’t immune to a bout of claustrophobia.  
  
“Well, the first one – Danneel - that was a mess, we spent most of the time arguing. And the second one, Jay, well,” Jensen paused and Jared held his breath as he waited for the rest. “We were together for what, seven months? But it was good, you know?”  
  
“What happened?” Sandy asked and Jared frowned to himself. Why would she want to know so much about Jensen’s exes?  
  
“Didn’t work out.”  
  
Jared rolled his eyes and sent Aldis a text.  _Trapped in her bedroom. Need a distraction._  
  
He could still remember that first night that Jensen asked him out like it was yesterday. It had been a Thursday night and Jared had been excited about an impending meteor shower. Everybody had a hobby right? Jared’s was astronomy. It just fascinated him in a way that he couldn’t explain. Hell, after a few months of teasing Jensen had started looking interested and even gone as far as to buy him a telescope. Of course that had been Jensen’s way of saying  _I like you_.  
  
And then that night, under the stars, he’d turned to Jared and said, “ _I like you a lot._ ”  
  
He found it hard to resist Jensen after that.  
  
\--  
  
Aldis’ distraction came in the form of sirens and the door being rapped hard. Jared waited patiently as the bed creaked and Sandy stood up.  
  
“What’s going on?” she said worriedly. Jensen’s reply was too low for Jared to hear but he heard Sandy say that she was going downstairs to see what the commotion was about. The second he heard the door open and slam shut, he darted out of the closet and came to face with Jensen.  
  
For a moment neither of them said anything; they just stood there looking at each other. And then Jensen ruined the moment.  
  
“I’m surprised you lasted a minute in there without needing to be let out.” It didn’t sound particularly rude but Jared couldn’t help the way embarrassment flared up inside him.  
  
“The bedroom’s clear,” he said, choosing to ignore Jensen’s comment. “So’s the guestroom and the bathroom. According to the building plan, this house has no attic so we’re left with the garage to check out. Are you going to search that or am I?”  
  
“Well, we can both do it?” Jensen said, like he wasn’t sure what to make of Jared’s tone. Jared laughed harshly.  
  
“There is no  _we_  anymore Jensen,” he replied. “I meant what I said.”  
  
“Oh yeah?” Jensen spat out defensively. “That’s not what you said when  _I_ was the one threatening to leave.” Jared closes his eyes briefly as the memory flitted through his head. God, he’d been absolutely pathetic.  
  
“Whatever,” Jared said, not caring that his response was lame. Jensen was undeterred and he kept going.  
  
“The only reason I handed in that transfer request was because I didn’t want you to get hurt!”  
  
“Oh well, that’s very big of you, Jensen,” Jared hissed, as he stepped closer towards Jensen. “I mean, you breaking up with me? That was totally pain-free, hell it was a freaking walk in the park. Didn’t hurt a damn bit. But you staying, God, that would have really killed me, right?”  
  
Jared didn’t like the way that Jensen was looking at him when he stopped. His chest heaving up and down with barely concealed anger. Jensen looked stunned, upset and angry all at the same time and Jared just wanted to punch him. But before he could do anything, they both heard footsteps and then the doorknob turned.

  
Jensen had never been good at thinking on his feet. Hell, sometimes he thought that he wasn’t good at  _thinking._ It didn’t make much sense, but his impulsiveness and recklessness somehow complemented Jared’s calmness on the job and it all turned out okay. But there was no good reason why he followed Jared back into the closet when the door opened.  
  
“What are you doing?” Jared whispered as they huddled against each other in the minimal space. “She  _left_  you in the fucking room.” He still sounded pissed off and Jensen wished that he could just ignore it. Just let Jared think what he wanted, let him go and just put the mess of their relationship behind him.  
  
“The only reason I wanted to transfer was because I could see how much you were hurting,” Jensen hissed. “And I knew that you wouldn’t say anything, and I knew you wouldn’t leave so I decided to make the first move. I stayed because  _you_  asked me to and I would have done anything you asked, Jared.  _Anything._ ”  
  
“Except for us not breaking up, right?” Jared said. “You’re full of shit.”  
  
Before Jensen could respond, a muffled voice called out, “Jared, it’s me. The coast’s clear.”  
  
Chad.  
  
Jared pushed past him and stumbled out of the closet and quickly disappeared through the door. That left Jensen with Chad. Chad hated his guts and Jensen didn’t think much of the scrawny, squinty eyed agent either.  
  
“You know, I still haven’t kicked your ass,” Chad said snidely as Jensen straightened out his clothes. He raised an eyebrow at Chad.  
  
“Oh, I would  _love_  to see you try.” Jensen didn’t bother sticking around for a reply.  
  
Chad wasn’t the person he wanted a response from.  
  
\--  
  
Jared called a joint meeting on Monday to discuss the case. They hadn’t found the weapons at Sandy’s house, nor anything to indicate that she knew about the weapons at all. Jensen didn’t really care anymore. He was just itching to be off suspension and cranky over the whole Jared thing. Plus it didn’t help that Chad had been shooting daggers at him for an hour while Jared avoided his eyes.  
  
“We can rule out her backyard,” Jared was saying when Jensen checked back in. “Aldis checked that over with the detector and came up with nothing. So we’re looking for maybe a storage facility in her name, or a locker somewhere that contains a clue. Or heck, maybe they’ve been sold off already. We still have just over a week left to go over our options.”  
  
“So, are we going to carry on with the fake dating plan or just stick to surveillance?” Aldis asked as he tapped away on the computer tablet in front of him.  
  
“Jensen can carry on with that,” Jared said quickly. “We never should have started the whole competition thing in the first place, right Jensen? Not only is it ridiculous, it’s not fair to Sandy, no matter what our orders are.”  
  
This was where Jensen should have chimed in and agreed. Hell, this was what he wanted in the first place before he’d accidentally offended Jared somehow. But a mixture of annoyance and tiredness made him say, “Really, Padalecki? Giving up halfway through the race? Heck, the Jared I know never goes down without a fight.”  
  
“Jensen,” Steve’s voice sounded like a warning but Jensen ignored it. He only had eyes for Jared.  
  
“Fine,” Jared said eventually. “If that’s how you want to play it. It’s a pity that you want to turn our last case together into some sort of petty war, but damn if I’m going to let you win this.”  
  
“So, that’s settled then,” Chad said. He turned to Steve, Riley and Jensen and said, “Get out.”  
  
Jensen really hated Chad fucking Michael Murray.  
  
\--  
  
Sandy wasn’t returning his calls. Jensen supposed that it was his fault for bailing on her on Saturday night after the police (Aldis pretending to be a cop) had turned up at her house. As far as he knew Jared had rushed in like the hero and saved the day, leaving Jensen to look like a Grade A asshole. He shrugged it off and started formulating another plan to get her fall for him.  
  
On Tuesday, he sent flowers to the pet store during her shift. Followed by chocolates, a fancy necklace, a spa package. All while billing the FBI for every fucking dime. He just didn’t care anymore. He didn’t have Jared anymore; he didn’t have a job anymore because he couldn’t be a fucking FBI Agent without Jared. It was just…unthinkable. So what did he have? Just this damn competition and he was going all out.  
  
Jensen got Steve and Riley to pick him up a picnic lunch and made his way over to the store. He pasted on his best apologetic look as he pushed the door open only to stop short when he saw Jared leaning over the counter with a nonplussed look on his face. Jensen scowled to himself as he approached him.  
  
“What the hell are you doing here?” he said, causing Jared to jump. Jared turned and regarded Jensen with an unreadable expression.  
  
“Waiting for Sandy,” Jared replied. “What are  _you_  doing here?”  
  
“I’m having lunch with Sandy.”  
  
“That’s funny,” Jared said with a laugh that indicated that he found Jensen’s words anything but funny. “Cause she agreed to have lunch with me today.” Before Jensen could reply, Sandy emerged from the area behind the counter, her eyes widening when she caught sight of Jensen.  
  
“Uh, Jared – this is Jensen, and Jensen, this is Jared.” She introduced them and Jared shook his head and gave him a strained smile. Jensen imagined that his probably looked the same.  
  
“I brought a picnic lunch,” Jensen announced as he held up the basket. Sandy frowned at him briefly but then her expression changed. There was a strange glint in her eyes as she looked right at him.  
  
“Hey, that’s great but I already promised Jared that I’d have lunch with him,” she said eventually, as she turned to Jared. “Would you mind if Jensen came along?”  
  
Jensen grinned as Jared squirmed uneasily.  
  
\--  
  
“Jensen, we might have a problem,” Steve said in his ear as Jared drove them to a nearby park. Jensen didn’t respond, just continued to glare at the radio in the hopes that Bruno Mars would stop fucking whining about how he’d catch a grenade for his girl. No sane person would catch a grenade for  _anyone._ He grunted softly to let Steve know that he’d heard him.  
  
“We were going through Sandy’s email for anything suspicious and we came across one from Chad Michael Murray.”  
  
Jensen couldn’t help the way his eyes instantly strayed to Sandy. He was even more surprised to see that she was looking back at him. The weird glint in her eye was back. He pulled out his phone and sent off a text,  _what did the email say?_  
  
“That’s the thing; Riley can’t seem to access the message. Hell, we only came across it by accident. We’ll keep digging.”  
  
They arrived at the park a few minutes later and Jensen watched as Jared found them a spot and set down the blanket. Idly, he wondered if he was an asshole for not offering to do it himself seeing as how it was his picnic. He shrugged off the thought and sat down once Jared and Sandy were seated. They must have looked odd, Jensen thought. Jared was obviously uneasy judging by the way he was fidgeting constantly. Sandy was still watching with that look on her face.  
  
Fifteen minutes later when she suddenly announced that she’d forgotten to check in on her sick neighbour that morning and had to leave, Jensen decided to bite the bullet and ask her what was up. He waited until she was a good 30 yards away from their spot, and left Jared sitting on the blanket as he jogged after her.  
  
“What’s going on?” he asked her, using his interrogation voice to let her know that he was on to her.  
  
“I can’t tell you.”  
  
Jensen blinked at her.  
  
“Look,” she started to say when it became obvious that Jensen simply didn’t know what to say. “I’m not supposed to be doing this but Chad is a shitty meddler. And as hot and gorgeous as you are, your charming act is kind of tiring. After you fluffed up the conversation in my room at the party, I knew I had to do something.”  
  
Jensen just stared at her.  
  
“I only ever spent one night with Julio Morales,” she continued. “And whatever line Chad or whoever sold you, it’s not true. The case you’ve been working on doesn’t exist. It was just a ruse to get you and Jared to admit that you were still in love with each other.”  
  
Jensen was pretty sure that he’d forgotten how to blink.  
  
“I had to tell him, Chad.” Sandy wasn’t facing him anymore, and Jensen realised that she had a damn earpiece, too. “Your stupid plan wasn’t working.”  
  
“Does Jared know?” Jensen found his voice eventually and Sandy turned back to him before she looked past his shoulder and glanced back at Jared who was busy playing with a few blades of grass.  
  
“Of course he doesn’t know,” Sandy snapped impatiently. “He would have handed in his damn transfer request if he did.”  
  
“Wait…he hasn’t handed it in yet?” Jensen asked and Sandy glared at him. Jensen only then noticed how menacing she could look. He wasn’t sure how this tiny chick in bright pink t-shirt and matching pink converse sneakers could be so intimidating.  
  
“Ugh,” she said as she shook her head at him. “Meet me back at my place at seven. And don’t be late.”  
  
“Uh—”  
  
“I don’t want to hear it,” Sandy said as she pulled out her iPhone. “You’re going to go over there and eat lunch with Jared. You’re going to make conversation and try not to be a douchebag.”  
  
“How do you know that I even want him back?” Jensen asked curiously. Jensen knew that he missed Jared, and he knew that if he could have a second chance he’d probably take it. He was finding it increasingly difficult to get angry at the way Chad had played them. Rufus probably wouldn’t be happy about this when he got wind of it though. Jensen should have been angry that people were meddling in his personal (and work) life but…he obviously wasn’t going to ever get things right with Jared on his own.  
  
What did he have to lose?  
  
“I have eyes,” was all Sandy said before she turned and walked away. His phone bleeped as he turned back to Jared. It was a text from Sandy.  _If u tell Jared abt this, I will chop ur balls off. :) S xx_  
  
Jensen gulped quietly.

 

  
All Jensen had to do was walk over there and have lunch with Jared. The same Jared that he’d been partners with a mere couple of weeks ago. It had been easier then. Why did it feel as though it was the hardest thing he’d ever do?  
  
When he reached Jared, he said, “Uh look, I have to go too. I have a meeting.” He left quickly, not caring that Jared had been his ride. The walk back to his apartment would do him good anyway.  
  
Hours later there was a crackle in his ear and a voice that was neither Steve nor Riley spoke.  
  
“Jensen?” It was Jared.  
  
“Yeah, I can hear you,” he said, ignoring the odd look one of the other people sitting at the bar gave him.  
  
“Rufus wants to see us both in two hours.”  
  
Jensen sighed. Surely this day couldn’t get any worse.  
  
\--  
  
“Good news, gentleman. We’ve located the weapons at a facility that was not affiliated with Ms McCoy in any way. So the case has been closed and you’re both free to see out the rest of your suspension,” Rufus said once Jensen and Jared were seated in his office. Rufus shot Jensen a look and Jensen narrowed his eyes. Was his boss in on this plan too?  
  
“Thank you, sir,” Jared said dutifully and Jensen rolled his eyes.  
  
“Maybe you can help Ackles learn how to control himself next time,” Rufus said as he shuffled through some papers at his desk.  
  
“Actually, I wanted to speak to you in private about another matter, sir,” Jared replied and they both turned to look at Jensen. He huffed as he stood up, not liking the way that they were both dismissing him like that.  
  
“I’ll see you later, Jared,” Jensen said in an attempt to be friendly.  
  
Jared didn’t answer.  
  
\--  
  
By the time 7pm rolled around, Jensen was exhausted. He wasn’t sure if it was Jared-isn’t talking-to-me exhaustion or I’ve-been-working-a-fake-case-due-to-a-ridiculous-plan-that-my-co-workers-and-possibly-my-boss-cooked-up-in-order-to-get-me-and-Jared-back-together exhaustion. He was pretty sure that it was the latter.  
  
He raised his hand to knock but the door sprung open and a hand reached out and grabbed a fistful of his shirt. Jensen was thrown into the hallway before he could even blink, and he looked up to see Chris and Steve restraining a very angry looking Chad.  
  
“I’m only a minute late,” he muttered as they managed to cart Chad away. He followed them and found himself being watched by multiple pairs of eyes.  
  
Rufus was sitting on one end of the couch glaring at him.  
  
“Boy, don’t even think about complaining. Sit your ass down and listen.” Jensen grudgingly did as he was told and he was pretty sure he could hear Chris snickering at him from somewhere in the room.  
  
“What are you even doing here?” Jensen grumbled from his spot in one of Sandy’s armchairs.  
  
“It’s Tuesday,” Rufus said gravely. “Meatloaf Tuesday. My wife cooks the nastiest meatloaf I’ve ever tasted. I would even consider spending an evening in Evidence to avoid eating that crap.” Jensen just shook his head. His boss was something else.  
  
After a few minutes, Sandy stood up and made her way to the front of the room, where her plasma screen was positioned.  
  
“We’re gathered here this evening to help Jensen – the grumpy asshole in the armchair – win back his boyfriend, Jared. To start this session off, we have compiled clips that prove that Jensen definitely wants Jared back to ensure that any denials will be ignored.”  
  
Memories of tequila instantly flashed in Jensen’s mind and he turned to where Chris was standing and mouthed ‘ _Traitor’_  at him. Chris merely smirked at him.  
  
The video started with some blurry, shaky footage. Jensen watching Jared doze off in the surveillance van. He and Jared fooling around in the FBI cafeteria. Jared watching as  _Jensen_ dozed off in the surveillance van. Jensen glaring from a distance as Jared and Matt Bomer laughed together over something. The two of them dancing at some stupid black tie party Jared had forced him to go to. Jensen couldn’t pretend that the clips didn’t affect him in any way. They’d looked so  _happy_  but still, none of that screamed ‘Jensen wants Jared back’. Of course that’s when his voice sounded out loud and clear.  
  
 _“I just…I miss him, you know. It wasn’t…I didn’t mind that things were shitty between us because I could still see him. Still smell that cologne he wears that drives me crazy…I could get my fix.”_  
  
Jensen watched himself onscreen, slumped at the table with the bottle in front of him, his eyes red, his skin pale and drawn. He looked like shit, for lack of a better word. And that was how he felt when Jared wasn’t around. Sandy seemed to sense the change in his demeanour because she stopped the tape  
  
“I have six hours of footage if you wanna say that it was just the drink talking.”  
  
Jensen didn’t even acknowledge Chris. He just sank back into the soft armchair and threw his hands up in the air.  
  
“Fine! I want him back,” Jensen said. “What do I have to do?”

  
Jared decided to spend the rest of his suspension at home relaxing. He had a whole bunch of box-sets to catch up on – even though his Gossip Girl set had disappeared somehow. So that was the plan, watch TV all day, go for runs and watch more TV. He thought about maybe hitting the gym but he and Jensen used the same one so he decided to avoid that. He laid in bed that Wednesday morning, about to press the play button on his remote, when his phone went off. It was a text from Jensen, asking if he wanted to meet up later. Jared replied instantly with, ‘ _sorry, im busy’._ Barely thirty seconds had passed by when he received another one that said, ‘ _please.’_  
  
He didn’t respond.  
  
When 6pm rolled around, he just increased the TV volume and pretended that he wasn’t thinking about going out to meet Jensen. It’s not that Jared didn’t want to. It was that he couldn’t. Chances are, they’d meet up, get liquored up, fuck and end up back in the same, distorted place. Jared didn’t think he was even in the mental state to deal with Jensen at the moment.  
  
Jared’s problem was his hate of conflict. It was ridiculous really, to say that you liked conflict. Did anybody like it? Jared didn’t know, all he knew was that he usually went out of his way to avoid it when it wasn’t a work matter. It was like he got it all out of his system during their cases and was able to resist it the rest of the time. According to Chad, being like that would never get him anywhere. Jared begged to differ. Except…now he was wondering if Chad had been on to something.  
  
He couldn’t help thinking back to the night that Jensen broke up. Jared wished he could say that he’d been over and over it in his head hundreds of time. That was the norm, right? People were supposed to do that. But not him, no he just remembered the feelings and pushed the memories away until everything was so blurry that he was convinced that it was Jensen who hadn’t done enough. It was Jensen who’d let him go.  
  
When he did finally slip up and forget to push the memories away, forget to remember that he wasn’t the type of person to dwell on the past, one thing was always clear. He was the one who walked away. Jared could see it now. He’d stood up slowly, reeling from what Jensen had just said, not even bothering to pause the stupid movie that had caused this. He remembered glancing down at Jensen and seeing the conflicted emotions on Jensen’s face. He could tell that Jensen wanted to say something else and he realised that he didn’t want to hear it.  
  
He didn’t want to fight.  
  
Jensen caught up with him as he was shoving a few days’ worth of clothes into a duffle bag. He watched as Jared rummaged through drawers and threw things into the bag.  
  
“So this is it?” Jensen asked finally. “We’re not even going to talk about it?” Jared couldn’t help snorting at that because Jensen was the one who was ending this, not him. Was it really so bad that Jared didn’t want to argue about it?  
  
“We’ll talk about it later,” Jared lied, knowing fully well that he was never going to want to talk about it.  _Ever_.  
  
“Look, just, at least stay here tonight,” Jensen said gently. “Where are you going to go?”  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” Jared said as he zipped up his bag and made his way to door, passing Jensen by. “It’s not your problem anymore.”  
  
Jared left and within three days, he’d rented another apartment and moved all of his stuff out of their shared home.  
  
Maybe it was time for Jared to stop pretending that he hadn’t been an instrumental part of their break up.  
  
\--  
  
Jensen was still at the bar when Jared got there, and Jared took a deep breath as he made his way over to the booth. He was surprised to see Sandy sitting across from Jensen and he frowned. It wasn’t really professional for them to fraternize with persons of interest even if the case had been declared closed. Suspicions arose inside him. Jared had always found it strange that Julio Morales ex-girlfriend just happened to live in the area.  
  
“Don’t worry, Jared. You’re forgiven.” Sandy suddenly emerged in front of Jared and he blinked at her in surprise. “I’m here on a date with….a guy called Chad. And I just happened to bump into Jensen and I wanted to let him know that there are no hard feelings, and the same totally goes for you.”  
  
She was gone before Jared could respond and he shook his head in bewilderment and went to join Jensen.  
  
“Hi,” Jensen said as Jared slid into the booth.  
  
“Hey,” Jared replied back easily. He gestured towards the beer in front of him that had beads of water dripping down it from the condensation. “This for me?” Jensen nodded and Jared took that as his cue to drain the entire thing in one go.  
  
“Steady on,” Jensen said and Jared shrugged.  
  
“It’s been a rough day.” He wondered why Jensen had even called him here in the first place. It’s not like they were on speaking terms.  
  
“I didn’t think you’d show up.”  
  
“I wasn’t going to,” Jared said slowly as Jensen watched him carefully. “But then I got to thinking about the day we broke up. We’ve never really sat down and talked about it, and that’s on me. The way things went that night - that was on me. You were freaking out, about us, about our place and I let you push me away at the first sign of trouble. I was such a coward, didn’t want to argue because I hated arguing. I’ve been blaming you all along, throwing it back in your face whenever we got into fights and just, that’s the point isn’t it? People fight, people argue and…that’s never going to change.”  
  
“Uh…” Jensen was clearly flabbergasted and Jared couldn’t really blame him.  
  
“I know that I’ve just dumped a load on you,” he said when it was clear that Jensen didn’t know what to say. “But I just want us to get past this. I miss being your friend. All of that partners first and foremost shit I said is just  _words_. It’s our friendship that matters.”  
  
With that said, Jared stood up and left. But this time he looked back, and he waved.  
  
\--

  
As Jared walked out of the bar, the earpiece in Jensen’s ear crackled as the feed suddenly burst to life.  
  
“Go after him,” Sandy said.  
  
“I can’t believe you told Jared that I was on a date with you,” Chad griped. “He’s going to figure this out at this rate, jeez. And they said that  _I_  was a shitty meddler. Women!”  
  
“Jensen, I can see you staring at the door pathetically,” Chris added. “I’ve already told the bar staff not to serve you tequila.”  
  
“Aw, man, y’all ordered a pizza with mushrooms on it?” Well, at least Aldis wasn’t butting his nose in.  
  
“Why didn’t we hook Jensen up with a video feed?” Steve asked. “This fucking earpiece is hurting my ear.”  
  
“That would be a gross invasion of privacy,” Riley replied.  
  
“This whole operation has been a gross invasion of privacy,” Aldis pointed out as Steve told Riley to fuck off.  
  
“EVERYBODY QUIET DOWN, NOW!”  
  
Oh and great, Jensen thought to himself. Now his boss was privy to even more details about his damn private life.  
  
“Alright, Ackles,” Rufus said once the others had shut up. “What’s the plan?”  
  
“You tell me,” Jensen said before he took a long swig of beer. “I’m not a good thinker. That’s Jared’s thing.”  
  
“Well, he’s just told you that he’s willing to put the past behind him, and he’s apologised for being a dumbass when you split,” Rufus said. “What’s the logical next step?”  
  
“…I show up at his place and reciprocate the word vomit he just unloaded on me?”  
  
“You apologise.”  
  
“Oh,” Jensen said dumbly.  
  
“And don’t just turn up and whisper ‘sorry’ at him, you explain to him what happened and tell him why you got scared or whatever the hell. Now get your ass home. Honestly, the Bureau does not pay me enough to be giving my agents  _relationship_ advice.”  
  
Jensen laughed for what felt like the first time in a long time.  
  
\--  
  
Jensen tried writing a speech. He knew what he had to say, knew what he wanted to say. He just didn't know how to say it. Sandy had been helpful at first but after her quotes turned out to be Taylor Swift lyrics he’d sent her packing. His gang of meddlers had already pencilled in a time and place for Jensen's grand declaration. Nosy bastards. It took him two days to realize that the speech had been a terrible idea. All he'd ended up with was copious amounts of balled up paper littering his place.  
  
Of course, Jared picked the moment when Jensen was floundering and panicking to knock on his door with a fucking six pack of beer and a smile as bright as the damn Texan sun. They'd traded a few messages since Jared's apology and Jensen thought that they were on better terms now. Not that Jensen was entirely focused on that. Jared looked good. Real good. Jensen wanted to slam Jared up against a wall and rip his shirt off with his teeth. And then he'd kiss, lick and bite at the miles of tan, golden skin on display for him. After he'd kissed his way down, he'd undo Jared's jeans, shove aside his underwear and suck Jared's cock until he made Jared cry out his name in ecstasy.  
  
"Jensen?" Jensen snapped out of his reverie and saw Jared giving him a concerned look. "Is everything okay? Is this a bad time?" Yes, Jensen wanted to say. Yes it was a bad time. He wanted Jared back and the thought of waiting until tomorrow was overwhelming. Back when he'd first asked Jared out, he'd just followed his instincts. He bought Jared that telescope, and he'd kept it simple. Jared had always been able to see through him. He'd asked Chad why it was him that they'd focused their attention on. Jared was better at talking, better at communicating.  
  
"Yeah, and he's also a giant pussy," Chad said. "He's the most patient person I know. Less impulsive than your average Joe." It made Jensen feel a tiny bit better. And Chad was right. If they did things at Jared’s pace, they’d never get anywhere.  
  
"I had this elaborate plan set up for tomorrow," Jensen admitted as he motioned for Jared to sit down.  
  
“Dude, the psych evaluation won’t be that bad,” Jared said, misunderstanding what Jensen meant. Jensen had done a good job of forgetting that they had to go in and speak to the Bureau-appointed psychologist about the fatalities on their last case. It’s not that people dying didn’t affect Jensen, he tried to avoid it at all times, but Julio Morales had been a nasty piece of work. He’d racked up a body count so high that Jensen really didn’t give a shit that he’d died. Of course if he said to that the shrink, he’d end up with extra sessions. It made him uneasy every time.  
  
But that wasn’t important now.  
  
“I’m not talking about that.” Jensen tried again. Suddenly he wished that he hadn’t thrown the earpiece out of the window when Sandy had gotten too much for him to bear. He could do with some guidance here.  
  
“I meant us,” Jensen clarified. “I was going to say this whole speech about how I shouldn’t have pushed you away, shouldn’t have let you leave.” The plan was a little more ridiculous than that but Jensen decided not to divulge it. Sandy had talked Aldis into tampering with the elevators while he and Jared were riding up. It didn’t make much sense to Jensen but he’d come to realise that his co-workers were completely insane.  
  
“I thought we’d agreed to put all of this behind us?” Jared said with a hint of wariness in his voice. “Friends, remember?”  
  
“I didn’t agree to that,” Jensen said and Jared’s face fell. “I don’t want to be your  _friend_ ; I want to be more than that.”  
  
“Why?” Jared practically whispered it and Jensen smiled as the words came to him easily.  
  
“’Cause, I like you a lot.” He could see the memory coming back to Jared instantly and he felt his throat constrict as he waited for Jared to say something.  
  
“You do, do ya?” It sounded almost wistful but Jensen could see the hints of a smile at the corner of Jared’s mouth and he sat down next to Jared on his couch.  
  
“What about you?” Jensen asked because he didn’t know what else to say.  
  
“I wasn’t expecting this, I didn’t think you wanted us to be a thing again,” Jared admitted with a shrug. “But, I kinda like you a lot too.”  
  
“So where do we go from here?” Jensen asked as he leaned over to take Jared’s hand. He wasn’t too keen on touchy feely crap like that, but he’d always made allowances for Jared.  
  
“I guess we have to just  _talk_ , like we didn’t do back then,” Jared said with a shrug. “We just kind of fell into it.”  
  
“And then we fell out of it,” Jensen said.  
  
“Not entirely.” Jared grinned at him and Jensen couldn’t help the way he smiled back.  
  
They talked for several hours before Jared went home, leaving Jensen to sigh woefully at the fact he’d be using his right hand to deal with his raging hard on. Jared and he had been dancing around the whole sex thing all night. Considering that they’d hooked up countless times when they’d been broken up, Jensen didn’t really see what the big deal was. But they’d agreed to take things one step at a time and thus, Jensen had been left in this predicament.  
  
With a sigh, he stood up and started to make his way to bed. Before he’d even reached his bedroom door, the buzzer went off.  
  
As he opened the door, Jensen was surprised to see Jared there. Before he could say anything, he spotted two things. The way Jared was blinking at him, and the tip of a gun barrel pressed against Jared's nape. As Jared was shoved into the hallway the gunman stepped in and kicked the door behind him. Jensen turned away from Jared and found himself face to face with...Julio fucking Morales. This was impossible because Jensen had blown the guy up.  
  
Jared said, "Ackles, meet Hector Morales. He's here to avenge his bastard of a brother."  
  
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jensen said in disbelief.  
  
“’Fraid not,” Jared shot back. Jensen didn't respond because he was quickly calculating a plan. But...it made no sense for Hector to have shown up by himself. His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden noise of exploding glass and Jensen gritted his teeth. Nobody fucked around with his windows and lived to tell the tale.  
  
"What do you want Hector?" He asked. Hector smiled at him sinisterly, his eyes darting back and forth between Jensen and Jared. There were heavy footsteps as Hector’s mooks surrounded him and Jared.  
  
Jensen sighed. So much for an early night.  
  
“I’m here to gut you and your partner over there with the pretty hair,” Hector said with an ugly grin plastered on his face.  
  
“I’ll tell my hairstylist that you think my hair is pretty.” Jared’s voice was full of scorn and derision and Jensen smirked.  
  
“By the time I’m finished with the two you, you won’t even be able to talk!” Hector spat out and Jensen fluttered his eyes at the huge man.  
  
“Sorry, man, you’re just not my type.” Hector sneered and Jensen grinned at him. He could see Jared rolling his eyes through the corner of his eye and his grin widened. It was just like old times. Hector started calling out orders in Spanish and Jensen frowned. He turned to look at Jared, only to see the other man charging towards Hector. He darted out of the way quickly as Jared and Hector tumbled onto the floor, hands scrambling for purchase as they both tried to gain the upper hand. As the gun-wielding henchmen ran forwards, Jensen bolted into his front room. He didn’t keep any of his weapons down here, but surely there was something he could use.  
  
As he caught a glimpse of an old vase some aunt had given him, he was grabbed from behind and slammed into a wall. He stuck out a leg and brought his attacker down, ignoring the pain that shot through his side. Before the guy could sit up, Jensen reached over and punched the guy  _hard_ , grimacing as his knuckles cracked and the guy dropped down to the ground.  
  
“What are you waiting for, you in-breds!” Jensen heard Hector shout. “ _Shoot_!”  
  
 _Shit._  
  
Gunfire crackled in the air and Jensen limped over to his liquor cabinet, fumbling as his hands slipped. Emerging footsteps made him stop in his tracks. Slowly, he grabbed the half empty bottle of Scotch and turned around. The gun man was watching him curiously, a sneer on his lips.  
  
“Alcohol won’t save you now, my friend,” the gun man said and Jensen shrugged.  
  
“It ain’t gonna save you either, pal,” he retorted and then he threw the bottle at the guy’s head, running before the glass exploded over the guy’s face. The screams told him that he’d hit his target. As well as the sound of bullets being pumped into every goddamn surface of his apartment. As he rounded back into the hallway, he saw that Hector and Jared were still duelling. Jared had a bruise forming around his eye, and his knuckles were red but he was slamming his fist into Hector, while somehow avoiding having his eyes clawed out. Jensen moved forward to help him, but the sight of three more gunmen stopped him in his tracks. Hector noticed the commotion and shoved Jared back to where Jensen was standing, and Jensen could hear more gunmen lining up behind them. There were six of them from what he heard. So it was seven against two and Jensen didn’t have any fucking grenades on hand this time. He stepped forward, with his hand gripping a fistful of Jared’s shirt. He shoved Jared behind him, resisting even as Jared tried to move forward.  
  
“I’m the one who killed your brother,” he said. “So if you’re going to kill someone, kill me.” Hector laughed at that, as if it was the funniest thing he ever heard.  
  
“I don’t care which one of you did it,” he spat. “You’re both scum. Scum deserves to die.”  
  
He raised his gun, and as Jensen closed his eyes two shots rang out.  
  
  


**_Epilogue_ **

  
When Jared woke up the next morning, he was feeling a little disorientated. He shut his eyes briefly and just at that moment someone shifted beside him. His eyes flew open and he tensed up. Jensen. He’d slept with Jensen last night. But it was okay because they were back together. They’d agreed to take it slow and Jared had left and gotten halfway home before he stopped and turned back. He’d seen the way Jensen was looking at him, seen the lust in his eyes. Jared had been pretty sure that he’d had the same look on his face. So he came back, but just as he’d been approaching Jensen’s place, some thug had grabbed him and held a knife to his throat. Of course, it had turned out to be that Hector guy. One of his minions had removed Jared’s gun and blade, hand clapped over his mouth to stop him from calling out. After that they’d dragged him over to Jensen’s apartment and knocked.  
  
Jared sighed to himself as he remembered the ensuing fight and how they’d been all but done for before the rest of the team had arrived to save their asses. Luckily for them, Aldis had left the feed linked to Jared’s earpiece open, and he raised the alarm once he’d heard the commotion. After hours spent answering questions and cleaning up all the mess, everyone had filed out, leaving Jared and Jensen to just stare at each other. Jensen’s place had been teeming with FBI Agents and crime scene investigators as well as their team, so they’d escaped to Jared’s apartment.  
  
 _Holy shit,_  Jared had thought.  _We’re lucky that we weren’t killed_. The same thought must have been running through Jensen’s mind, because he had this look on his face. Almost as though he was trying to make sure that Jared was still  _there._ That  _they_  were still here together. By some form of unspoken agreement, they’d made their way up to the bedroom in silence.  
  
Jared had smiled softly at the look on Jensen’s face when he’d closed the door behind them, and leaned in kissed Jensen. He’d backed him up against the wall and kissed him deeper, pushing their bodies closer together until they were practically entwined. Soon after that, clothes had been thrown off and they’d made their way into Jensen’s room and Jared had blown him right by the dresser, with Jensen’s cock so far down his throat that Jared wasn’t sure if he’d be able to speak the next day. Finally, he’d made Jensen come and Jensen reached down and jerked him off as Jared licked at his neck and murmured Jensen’s name over and over. Eventually, they made their way to the bed and Jared watched as Jensen rummaged around in his nightstand for lube and condoms and felt his cock start to harden again. After that, all he remembered was pushing into Jensen’s tight hole and fucking into him hard and fast until they were both covered in sweat and come, their chests heaving as they regained their breath slowly.  
  
“On a scale of 10, how much are you freaking out right now?” Jensen said from behind him, his voice gruff with sleep. Jared felt his face heating up as he snapped out of memory lane.  
  
“I’d say it’s at seven and a half. We did almost get killed last night after all,” Jared said when he was sure that his voice would remain steady. Once he’d spoken, he rolled over. “Hi.”  
  
Jensen smiled at him softly and said, “Hi. Thank God that our eighth life kicked in and the team got here when they did, huh?” Jared snorted. Speaking of the team…  
  
“So, I have a question,” Jared said slowly. “What was Sandy really doing at the bar? I know that she wasn’t on a date with a guy who just happened to be called Chad.”  
  
“Yeah…about that,” Jensen replied as he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “Meet me in the kitchen for a coffee and I’ll tell you all about it.” He was out of the door before he could say anything. Jared got up a few minutes later and headed over to the bathroom. After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he got dressed and went to meet Jensen.  
  
He didn’t count on his movements being tracked by several pairs of eyes as he left Jensen’s bedroom.  
  
“Oh great,” Jensen was saying as Jared approached them. “Now he’s seen you.” A quick glance showed that Chad, Sandy, Aldis, Riley, Steve, Chris and his boss were occupying the space in Jared’s lounge.  
  
“Does anyone want to explain what’s going on?” he asked as he stopped in the doorway. “Also, why are all you here? How did you get inside?”  
  
“We’re federal agents,” Chad said. “Like you even need to  _ask_  that question.”  
  
“Sure I’ll explain,” Aldis said before Jared could respond. “Chad came up with a terrible plan to get you and Jensen back together that involved our boss creating a fake case and all of us manipulating you and Jensen to make sure that you both got your heads out of your asses. He had it all written out in some cute little notebook too, but then Sandy – who by the way, I don’t know – took over and somehow managed to have even worse ideas than Chad did. But somehow you two have managed to figure it out by yourselves. I was lucky enough to hear your very loud reconciliation via Jared’s earpiece. So, thanks for that. Unfortunately for all of us, we somehow managed to miss the fact that the fake case we’d made up was very much a real one. Yet somehow, we all made it out of this alive. Rufus is probably going to wave some magic wand and make this all disappear, so I’m going to home, eat my mushroom-free pizza and sleep for a week. Aldis out.”  
  
There was a stunned silence as Aldis stood up and left the apartment. Jared couldn’t really fault his bluntness and honestly.  
  
“Does anyone have anything else to add?” Jared asked.  
  
“My plans were not worse than Chad’s,” Sandy insisted indignantly.  
  
“I think it’s time that we were all leaving,” Rufus said loudly. “Ackles, Padalecki, I’ll see you in few hours after your evaluation and debriefing. Oh and McCoy? I trust you’ll resolve any issues you have with Padalecki before you show up for your first day at the office on Monday?”  
  
Jared was sure that he heard Jensen groan behind him.  
  
“You’re an agent?” Jared said. “An agent who slept with Julio Morales?”  
  
“Uh, yeah all of that was made up,” Sandy admitted. “Even the part I told Jensen when I first came clean. I don’t even know what the guy looks like.”  
  
“He looks like a pile of char stained ashes,” Jensen informed her as he moved forward to stand close to Jared. “Unlike his twin brother, who has matching bullet holes in his head.” Jared ran his hand in a soothing motion on Jensen's back. They were safe now.  
  
“Hey, Jared, we’re cool, right?” Chad said.  
  
“I think so,” Jared replied because truth be told, he was still a little confused. He’d worked a fake case and watched Jensen seduce a woman who was their new co-worker. And he’d only done this because his best friend had orchestrated some sort of plan to get him and Jensen back together. But really, it’d turned out that Julio Morales did indeed have another stash of illegal weapons that he’d given to his twin brother to look after. Said twin brother had lain in wait to avenge Julio’s death by attempting to kill him and Jensen hours after they’d gotten back together.  
  
It sounded like some bizarre, awful Hollywood movie. But Jared realised that he didn’t really mind because it had gotten him Jensen back, and for the first time in a long time, he felt like he could breathe.  
  
“Y’all might want to get out of here,” he said as he grinned. “Because I’m about do some very dirty things to my boyfriend over there.”  
  
“ _Sweet mother of_ —some boundaries should not be crossed, Padalecki,” Rufus griped as he extracted himself from Jensen’s couch.  
  
“With all due respect sir, you shouldn’t even be here.” Rufus shot Jared a dark look as he and the others made a hasty retreat and suddenly it was just him and Jensen. Jensen smiled up at him and Jared could see the love and affection reflected in his eyes.  
  
Jared could have sworn that his heart start beating louder.  
  
“I love you,” he said, not caring that they’d never really said it out loud before. They’d always had a sort of understated relationship that didn’t really need grand declarations. He knew that Jensen had loved him and he was pretty sure that Jensen knew that Jared loved him.  
  
But he just couldn’t resist the urge to say it.  
  
There was a beat, as Jensen covered the distance between them and placed a hand of Jared’s chest.  
  
“I love you too,” he said softly and a moment passed before Jensen’s eyes gleamed mischievously. “But I love coffee more and if I don’t get some soon, I’m not going to be awake for those dirty things you were talking about.”  
  
“I might just leave you and coffee alone,” Jared replied teasingly. “Seeing as how you love it more than me and all.”  
  
“You’re an idiot if you’d think that I’d ever love anything more than I love you.”  
  
Jared didn’t answer; he just kissed Jensen gently and decided that he was much better equipped than coffee was when it came to keeping Jensen awake.  
  
 ** _Fin._**


End file.
